When United Flight 6904 was descending and she saw the lights of Salt Lake City, Xiaomei Jiang said, "I really felt very warm inside."
The arrival Friday night marked the end to a harrowing, eight-month ordeal.
She and her husband, Jian Zhang, are physics Ph.D. students at the University of Utah and respected researchers, while their daughter, Ailin Zhang, has attended Salt Lake schools. In early September 2002, they rushed back to their native city in southwestern China because Jiang's parents had been in a terrible auto accident.
Her mother, Jue Feng Dwan, died at the scene. Her father, Chun Ji Jiang, died about 10 days after the family arrived in Chong Qing. After a period of mourning, on Sept. 26, 2002, they applied for new student visas so they could resume their research and education in Salt Lake City.
To their distress, the U.S. consulate in Chengdu did not issue approval for their return until May.
Perhaps the delay was because of the extensive security checks foreign nationals entering the United States can be subjected to. Maybe it was due to red tape. The family is baffled about why it took so long to clear them, although they know other Chinese students have been in the same fix.
While they waited, they stayed with Zhang's family.
While the delay was difficult, they all got along well. However, the long holdup began to depress them.
For months, they would check on their visa applications and the consulate would tell them nothing. In the beginning, consulate officials were impolite, said Jiang.
"Once I was told (by a consulate staff member) . . . 'You guys are very annoying. You're annoying us. And the consulate is very angry with you guys.' "
They became afraid they would never receive their visas. This was only about the second time they had inquired, and consulate officials had told them to check back.
"Actually, I feel like it was like a shock," said Zhang. They had not done anything to annoy them, he said.
"I would dig in my mind and try to think what I did" to make them angry, Jiang said.
Later, they learned their applications were going through security checks.
Meanwhile, Ailin couldn't attend Chinese school. Educated at Bonneville Elementary in Salt Lake City, she had not learned to read Chinese characters. Her mom taught her at home, helping her to keep up with English and other subjects.
They could not know whether they would ever be able to return. But they couldn't find work in China for two reasons: They had left in such a rush that their Chinese identification and other papers were still in their apartment in University Village, and potential employers were not willing to risk losing them if their visas came through.
"It's really a nightmare," Jiang said.
Other members of the family in the United States, including Jiang's sister, Yuhong (about to begin teaching at Harvard), contacted the State Department and other potential sources of help.
As time dragged on and they did not receive any good news, Jiang began, "the hope is getting —"
"Lost," Ailin finished the sentence for her.
"Lost," agreed Jiang. "And we were getting desperate."
They felt like they were hanging in the middle of the air, she said. "Without any protection," her daughter added.
Ailin described what it was like.
"Staying at my auntie's place," she recalled. "The next morning after, the next morning, I was always wondering the same question. When will I come back?"
She missed Utah "a lot," she said.
Her third-grade classmates sent her cards and a package. "I felt like I was about to faint" when that happened, she was so overjoyed. Eventually, she was able to communicate with them by e-mail and that helped, too.
"At first, I felt like we were going to come back very soon," the girl said. Then she became discouraged. "Well, there aren't many miracles in this world," she said.
"Then, later on when I heard the consulate called . . . I was overexcited, jumping all over." The call said they were cleared and would probably be returning soon.
By then, another fear had come into play: SARS. The disease has hit some sections of China, and they worried that it might somehow prevent their return. But they were in a region that was free of the disease.
When they received permission to return, they decided to go home by way of Nanjing instead of Beijing, the capital, to avoid the outbreak.
"We were really afraid of that," Jiang said.
Now that they are back in Utah, the adults will return to their research laboratories at the U. They expressed gratitude that the university has helped them tremendously, as have friends in Utah.
Zhang said he was "very happy" about the news they could return. "I can continue my research and continue my studies and get my Ph.D. That's the goal. . . . There's lots of unfinished work waiting for me."
Jiang too will return to research and her Ph.D. work, continuing the efforts that allowed her to co-author a paper in the prestigious journal Science.
Ailin will return to school, catching the last of the school year. She feels confident she can perform at grade level.
While they were away, friends moved their belongings out of their apartment at the U.'s University Village and kept them for the family. They are temporarily staying at an inexpensive motel on South State.
Within a week they should be able to move into an apartment in University Village.
"Everything will go back to normal," Ailin said.
Her mother, cautious after the months of uncertainty, amended that: "Hopefully," she said.
E-MAIL: bau@desnews.com